Free Devil In A Blue Dress Essay Example

“Devil in a Blue Dress” unveiling the possibilities for African-American empowerment in the repercussion of the Second World War. Walter Mosley tells the impact of the war and about a black world located in Los Angeles, before the civil rights movement. In his literary work, he introduces Easy Rawlins, who was the principal character. By viewing an American culture from the perspective of a black lead character, Devil in a Blue Dress, helps readers to become more conscious of how racial barriers have appeared in the eyes of African-Americans. Easy was deep in need of money that could help him to survive. However, he is unemployed. He thinks hard about how to pay off his mortgage, and he could do anything to make both ends meet. His friend, a bartender Joppy introduces Easy to Dewitt Albright. Albright offers Easy job of searching for a white woman by the name Daphne Monet, who is former lover he merely wants to get in touch with her. In the “Devil in a Blue Dress,” Monet is a mysterious and elusive woman. She was a daughter of African American, and her real name was Ruby Hanks. She used in to live in Louisiana, but she wants to escape the memory of an incestuous relationship with her father. In her home, she was described as a chameleon since she is capable of assuming different racial identities and become radically with different personalities "Her eyes flashed greenHer eyes turned blue" (Mosley 188, 191).. The paper will elucidate that Daphne Monet was a woman who used her beauty and life experiences to take advantage of men.
Mosley tells that Daphne’s eyes could change colors when her character changes from Ruby Green to Daphne Monet. Down the time, Mosley reveals that Daphne has to split the personality that makes her feel and act differently. As it is disclosed in the bathroom scene, "I remembered my mother’s death, back when I was only eight. “she washed her wounds with a rough rag and licked the blood till it staunched” (Mosley 188, 186). Mosley uses animal symbolism to demonstrate and define the character of Daphne throughout “The Devil in a Blue Dress.” In real life, Daphne transforms into a chameleon, and this is a survival strategy that helps the character to take the advantage of the situation that fails to favor her. Daphne past is dirty, and it made her be inhuman and insensitive when handling people within her environment.
For instance, when Easy asked Daphne who killed Coretta, she first ignores the question but when she is asked for the second time, she defends herself by saying that it was an accident. Daphne responds by, “Todd and I broke up and paid a guy for the pictures of Teran. But somehow Coretta got them” (96, 105). Daphne does not directly answer Easy the person behind the murder but by saying that Coretta had threatened to sell the pictures to Teran illustrates that she was responsible and knew about everything that had happened. Daphne wanted to use the pictures as a trap to win Carter. Easy gets surprised and asks her, “What? Marry Carter? Be white again” (97, 107). Daphne gets furious and complains how she has always been a victim of being judged in the wrong way. She claims that she was not pretending to fit in other people shoes. Daphne complains, “Do you know how I’ve been treated by people, colored and white, when I’ve tried to live as a colored woman in a colored community?” (97, 107). Daphne tries by all means to trap Easy so that her situation could be understood. Because she knew she was beautiful, she moves closer to Easy and starts to caress him saying that the move was the best thing that could happen. Daphne worked hard to ensure that the pictures were used to her advantage. Easy was carried away, and his efforts proved futile as Daphne used her trickery to avoid leaking out the pictures to him.
Daphne eyes unpredictably transform from blue to green, and this illustrates the chameleon-like personality she used to conquer the events around her world. Daphne is a victim of racism and sexual abuse, and this makes her feel like a caged ape. In her defense, she believes that she was rejected and ridiculed by both white and blacks. Despite claiming that she forgave her father because of raping her, Daphne is desperate and hates men with a passion. When she sees the mating zebras, she argues that nature allowed the males to dominate over females. Daphne did not live her self-life because she believed that men dominated her, and this developed a vengeful character within herself. The author assigns her an animal instinct, and this makes Daphne loner like a mouse. Daphne had developed a character of treating men in the bad way and broke their hearts without remorse. The lady avoids falling in love with men by trapping them with her beauty, breaking up with them and moving on with other men. To her, love was something that she avoided at all costs and wanted to revenge by treating men like animals. Daphne past experiences had destroyed her personality to a great extent. Sadly, she took advantage of the life experiences to take advantage of men and treats them in the inappropriate manner.
Daphne is an extremely independent person who uses her life experience and beauty to have several survival strategies. Due to animalism that she passed in her home, makes her leaves to start a new life with an aim protecting herself only since she does not belong anywhere. She believes that, after knowing someone well she frequently leaves them; that is why she abandons Mr. Carter. Daphne ability to change characters, as well as to move between Whites and African-American crowds, makes it easier for Daphne to survive in her life. She has convincing tongue which she uses to persuade both races to help her, which assurances both an ally and an enemy. Mosley reveals that most of the men in “Devil in A Blue Dress” were keenly looking or Daphne after having taken advantage of them, there is Albright and Mr. Teran. She is known as “Monet fiancée of Todd Carter, one of the richest men in town” (Mosley, 16).
On the other hand, her character of taking advantage over men may result from the experience of pedophilia which was compounded with an element of incest. Daphne's change could be a result of her sexual abuse as a child, the made her to be another animal in the jungle. Sometimes animalism is brought by the experience that one passes as they progress in life. It is not an inherited characteristic after Daphne molested by her father at the age of fourteen she concluded by having responses to her sense of sexual perversity. She found that her beauty and life experience would help her to take advantage over men. In her lovemaking, she decided to be bold and even violent. In the scene of explaining Richard’s murder, she kisses Easy so violently to an extent of chipping his tooth. In another scene, when Daphne and Easy are having sex, Easy said, “she grabbed my penis,” and she said, “Does it hurt for you to love me, Easy? I love it when you are hurt” (Mosley, 187). She changes the way she touches Easy from soft to rough, which reminds him of sadness and hurt him. These are clear indications that her sexual behavior ring with a wish for revenge on her father. Her life experience of suffering from incest and pedophilia has driven her to opposite extremes. She finds herself in the company of Richard McGee, a pimp and trafficker of children. At the end she commit murder after killing Teran since he acts so unreasonably on a little boy who he has been abusing.
In her conversation with Easy, Mosley reveals that Daphne was willing to pay Easy to take her across the town to see someone who she cannot reach him by phone. “I'm afraid I'd better have someone go with me.. Please let me pay you.” (Mosley 49, 48). Her beauty was a weapon for convincing men, and this can be seen in the scene where she left Carter after a robbery of thirty-thousand dollars from him. The mystery revolves around trying to locate Daphne. Daphne had stolen thirty thousand dollars and used the money to take advantage over men. The money earned her a status as everybody respected her very much. People believed that she was a high-class lady and often confused her with the impressionist painter Claude Monet. Her second name, “Monet” is often confused with money, and this made it possible for the author to depict the selfish character of Daphne as a devil in a blue dress. Men believed that finding Daphne was finding money, and she took advantage of the situation. For instance, Daphne has made Mr. Albright believe that she is the only savior of her life, and she can treat him like a mother. As described by Joppy, Mr. Albright was ready to take any risks as long as money was involved.
Throughout the book, the murders that occur are fueled by the use of money in exception of Teran’s death. Daphne uses her money to pay men so that they could assassinate the people that she never wanted alive. For instance, she pays Joppy so that he could murder Howard Green and Coretta. Joppy is paid one thousand dollars so that he could commit the inhuman acts. When Easy continues to interrogate Daphne, who had committed the brutal murder on Coretta, she responds by saying that it was an accident. She is ready to pay him some good amount of money so that she could cover up the story. Daphne asks Easy, “Why don’t you just take the money!” (Mosley 94,105). The protagonist was ready to squander huge amounts of money protect invested interests.

Work cited

Mosley, Walter. Devil in a Blue Dress: Featuring an Original Easy Rawlins Short Story. Simon and Schuster, 2010. Retrieved from http://www.sellingyourscreenplay.com/wp-content/uploads/screenplay/scripts/Devil-In-a-Blue-Dress.pdf